ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2020
CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of female-biased genes AeAct-4 or myo-fem in Ae. aegypti results in a flightless phenotype in female, but not male mosquitoes.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mosquito sex separation using complementation of selectable traits and engineered neo-sex chromosomes.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A male-drive female-sterile system for the self-limited control of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- A Y chromosome-linked genome editor for efficient population suppression in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Gene drives: an alternative approach to malaria control?Gene therapy · 2025Review
- Hybridization between Aedes aegypti and Aedes mascarensis mosquitoes leads to disruption of male sex determination.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Advances and challenges in synthetic biology for mosquito control.Trends in parasitology · 2024Review
- CRISPR mediated transactivation in the human disease vector Aedes aegypti.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Perspectives of vector management in the control and elimination of vector-borne zoonoses.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Selective targeting of biting females to control mosquito-borne infectious diseases.Trends in parasitology · 2022Review
- Partial masculinization of Aedes aegypti females by conditional expression of Nix.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Considerations for homology-based DNA repair in mosquitoes: Impact of sequence heterology and donor template source.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Reflection on the Challenges, Accomplishments, and New Frontiers of Gene Drives.Biodesign research · 2022Review
- Driving down malaria transmission with engineered gene drives.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Review
- The impact of transgenesis on mosquito fitness: A review.Frontiers in insect science · 2022Review
- Indel Detection following CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis using High-resolution Melt Analysis in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2021Article
- Suppressing mosquito populations with precision guided sterile males.Nature communications · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Aedes aegypti is a vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. Current vector control strategies such as community engagement, source reduction, and insecticides have not been sufficient to prevent viral outbreaks. Thus, interest in novel strategies involving genetic engineering is growing. Female mosquitoes rely on flight to mate with males and obtain a bloodmeal from a host. We hypothesized that knockout of genes specifically expressed in female mosquitoes associated with the indirect flight muscles would result in a flightless female mosquito. Using CRISPR-Cas9 we generated loss-of-function mutations in several genes hypothesized to control flight in mosquitoes, including actin (AeAct-4) and myosin (myo-fem) genes expressed specifically in the female flight muscle. Genetic knockout of these genes resulted in 100% flightless females, with homozygous males able to fly, mate, and produce offspring, albeit at a reduced rate when compared to wild type males. Interestingly, we found that while AeAct-4 was haplosufficient, with most heterozygous individuals capable of flight, this was not the case for myo-fem, where about half of individuals carrying only one intact copy could not fly. These findings lay the groundwork for developing novel mechanisms of controlling Ae. aegypti populations, and our results suggest that this mechanism could be applicable to other vector species of mosquito.
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